Sacra Via Summa

You are standing on the highest part of the Sacra Via, which the Romans called the Sacra Via summa, on the top of the Velian Hill near the Arch of Titus. The Sacra Via is crowded now. The usual social climbers mix with proud senators, soldiers, tradesmen and women, litigators hurrying to or from a lawsuit, freedmen and freedwomen on errands, slaves hurrying to do their masters' bidding (or dally in the shade). Along here, you remember, the poet Horace was accosted by a social-climbing pest, a molestus, whom Horace tried desperately to get rid of politely but couldn't; he was saved finally by a man who dragged the bore off to court.

From here you can walk west, down the slope called the sacer clivus, the Sacra Via proper, toward the entrance toward the Forum, or you can turn east and walk down the newer section of the road leading past the Temple of Venus and Roma to the Colosseum.

Nearby you see a very unusual equestrian statue, dedicated to the legendary Roman heroine Cloelia.

To follow Tristia Tresunus to his fifth stop, take the Region 10 (Clivus Palatinus) exit.